Anxiety over the new Gmail Compose

Re:Anxiety over the new Gmail Compose by thezilch on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @09:34PM (#6325021)

What a load of crap. Plenty of untasteful and inconsistent crap had come out of Apple, under Jobs; it's painfully easy to find examples [0]. Everyone is going to have their opinions, of course, but the compose, unlabeled / iconography buttons, detractors of WYSIWYG emails, etc are _not_ disasters for myself and many others.

[0] http://www.tuaw.com/2011/12/06/on-ui-inconsistency-in-ios-5/

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Re:Anxiety over the new Gmail Compose by encoderer on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @10:24PM (#6325204)

If you're going to be so belligerent, at least use an example of something that wasn't developed while Jobs was disengaged and on his deathbed.

More importantly, though, I love that you read 2 paragraphs and then blew your top ("what a load of crap" -- really?) over a parenthetical comment that was already qualified with a "probably."

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Re:Anxiety over the new Gmail Compose by thezilch on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @11:05PM (#6325303)

Here're some, random, examples off a Google SERP...

From an acclaimed Apple-enthusiast: http://daringfireball.net/2004/10/themes

Ever seen the window controls for a full-screen iTunes 10? http://zapp0.staticworld.net/reviews/graphics/products/uploa...

More: http://watchingapple.com/2008/05/how-apples-contextual-menus...

May Jobs rest in peace, but iOS 5 didn't just materialize in a single day, and Jobs presented it, undoubtedly as the next-best sliced bread, at WWDC.

More importantly, though, I love that you read 1 paragraph and then blew your top ("belligerent" -- really?) over a comment. It's really tiring to hear about how "if only Jobs were here" or "Jobs would never let this happen!" pg should know better, and so, I won't hold his hand.

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Re:Anxiety over the new Gmail Compose by graeme on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @11:17PM (#6325331)

I think you misread pg's point. He didn't say jobs produced perfect consistency.

Pg said that forcing consistency tends to result in bad design decisions. Maybe jobs could do it, page can't.

To disprove that point, you'd need to show an example of forced consistency across apple platforms that degraded usability. Showing inconsistency isn't responding to the argument.

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Re:Anxiety over the new Gmail Compose by thezilch on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @11:51PM (#6325420)

I really can't see the line between the top-most comment, about bugs, pg's special insight into Jobs, and the conclusions you've drawn. What Jobs has to do with the class of issues bulleted, in the top-most comment, is beyond me. There's not even any proof being shown that what Page or Google is doing is wrong; just a bunch of parroting of blanket statements.

I really didn't want to compare Apple and Google or Page and Jobs; that's the point. We're not even comparing the same things, and you don't have to look far to find power users scorning The Apple Way. We can go on all day with issues pertaining to Apple's HIG -- forced consistency -- and the degrading of usability.

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Re:Anxiety over the new Gmail Compose by graeme on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @12:21AM (#6325532)

I'll try to state it more clearly. I'm just restating pg.

1. Pg says forced ui consistency tends to be bad. 2. Maaaybe a skilled design genius like jobs could do it (maybe), but most people shouldn't try.

His argument didn't turn on Jobs. It was a rhetorical flourish to bolster the idea. If even the best in the field (according to pg) couldn't do it well, then others should be wary.

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Re:Anxiety over the new Gmail Compose by thezilch on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @12:58AM (#6325656)

I really doubt pg would be suggesting, as an entrepreneur and investor in entrepreneurship, to be wary about besting supposed idols. Myths, hearsay, and not scientific.

The top-most comment is fair to point out bugs, but I don't see the correlation with Jobs and his genius, UI/UX brush. Are you suggesting mandates for consistent UI -- whatever that has to do with the article's discussion about the compose window -- creates more bugs? Makes Maps slow? They should fix those things, but it has nothing to do with UI / UX consistency nor Jobs.

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Re:Anxiety over the new Gmail Compose by nitrogen on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @10:10PM (#6325154)

unlabeled / iconography buttons

How do you know what anything does with graphical-only buttons, in Gmail compose UI, Android copy/paste UI, etc., without tapping everything at least once and potentially losing data?

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Re:Anxiety over the new Gmail Compose by thezilch on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @10:40PM (#6325242)

I use keyboard coords to navigate and operate most facets of GMail, and all of the buttons have a tooltip, distinctive icons, and have the ability to undo. I'd be willing to eat crow if there were actually a study showing that users of 2-3 icons without labels don't know their purpose after the first couple uses. Instead, we get a bunch of parroting about how Google and Page have lost their way -- nothing scientific.

As for Android, sure there is no undo, and I wasn't really speaking for Android, but I'd, again, be really surprised if the cut/copy/paste is statistically confusing. I'd only suggest the paste option only be offered in the context-menu above the selection and not also next to the cut/copy icons. I'd also argue that it's really unlikely I'd be doing anything with an Android device that isn't repeatable with little effort or would be undoable and before I possibly had to cut my teeth once or twice. I think iOS did a better job here, as Android offers no means of backing out a change.

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Re:Anxiety over the new Gmail Compose by brian_cloutier on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @10:28PM (#6325214)

If it's any consolation, if you long-hold an Action Item (anything in the top or botton bars, including the copy/paste UI) in android a tooltip will appear explaining what the button does.

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